In the spirit of celebration for International Women’s Day we’ve been chatting in the Policy Press office about the women who have inspired us. Read on to find out who the women are we admire most and why…

Director Alison Shaw says that many women have influenced her at different times in her life, including too many feminist writers to even begin to list. She says:

“As for many people, my mum, Pat Shaw, and my grandmother, May Bottomley, were the first women to influence and inspire – both remarkably gentle, caring, selfless like so many women of their generations – yet mum was extraordinarily stoical when faced with cancer at 50 and showed amazing resolve and fortitude, characteristics that had always been there yet never given full expression until facing a true life challenge.

An inspiring political figure for me is Mary Robinson, the first female president of Ireland, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, founding member and chair of the Council of Women World Leaders and now UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Climate Change.

Her record on trying to make a real and lasting difference to gender equality, women’s participation in peace building and human rights internationally is amazing and her continuing work as one of The Elders inspiring.”

Crazy dreams

Editorial Assistant Rebecca Tomlinson is equally challenged by the notion of picking just one inspirational woman in her life! The two women she settles on from a long list of possibles are author J.K. Rowling and her ‘lovely’ mum. She says:

“I am very lucky in that I come from a family full of intelligent, strong and amazing women. Growing up, I was always encouraged to follow my passions and (often crazy) dreams, sometimes even if it was at the detriment of school or work.

I remember once telling my Mum that I was going to drop out of University, move to London and become a DJ. She just smiled and said “whatever makes you happy”. She has always actively encouraged my love of reading and writing and without that I probably wouldn’t have the passion for books that I do today.

In my opinion J.K. Rowling is also a great role model and inspiration to both women and men. A single mum who struggled with depression, she managed to write Harry Potter whilst living on state benefits and has forged an incredibly successful career doing what she loves.”

Overcoming obstacles

Rebecca isn’t alone in her appreciation of J.K.Rowling. Production and Publishing assistant Ruth Harrison also names the Harry Potter author as her number one inspirational person. Ruth says:

“JK Rowling overcame many obstacles including the poverty she experienced as a single mother. She now supports a number of charities including Lumos, a children’s charity, and uses her success to help make the world a better place. Plus, my 12-year-old self will always be a Harry Potter fan.”

Writers have always had the ability to leave their mark on us as readers as was the case with Marketing Manager Kathryn King’s inspirational woman, Vera Brittain. Kathryn says:

“..she was doing it in an era when it was much harder for women”

“I read all 3 of her Testament books around the time I decided to do my degree. She really inspired me to make that step as she was doing it in an era when it was much harder for women.

Then, having fought to get to Oxford, she gave up her place to go and nurse in France so that she could understand what the war was like for those involved. That experience politicised her and she dedicated her life to pacifism.”

“At a time when so many people are disillusioned by politics, I think we should remember how hard Pankhurst and the other women in the movement fought to get women the vote. For this reason alone we should vote, even if it’s a case of choosing the ‘best of the worst’.

“Pankhurt’s approach of protest and direct action is inspiring”

I think Pankhurt’s approach of protest and direct action is inspiring. It’s easy to sit back and moan about the world, but much more challenging to be proactive and get involved in making change happen. We should take these women as our lead.”

Courage and selflessness

A woman who was prepared to go to extreme places for the benefit of others inspired Journals Executive Kim Eggleton. Kim says she was about 10 when she first came across the story of a lady called Gladys Aylward:

Gladys Aylward

“We watched a film at school called The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, about a woman from London who wanted to go to China as a missionary. I’ve been inspired by that woman ever since.

Gladys Aylward was turned down as a missionary because of her poor academic background and lack of Chinese language skills, but she spent her life-savings on a ticket and went anyway – completely alone on the Trans-Siberian Express.

Initially she worked for the government as a foot inspector, enforcing the law against foot-binding before later founding an orphanage. In 1938 Aylward led over 100 orphaned children across the mountains to safety from advancing Japanese forces. I find her courage and selflessness completely inspiring, what an incredible woman!”

History, both public and personal, is where Production Editor Jo Morton draws her inspiration from. What connects the choices of Queen Elizabeth I and her nan, Alice Daniels, is the way both women defied the pressures of social convention. Jo says:

“I’ve always admired Elizabeth I’s determination to reign in her own right, in an era when women were expected to yield to male authority. She was not coerced (like Mary her sister) into contracting a marriage in order to appease her male councillers and secure the succession.

“…quietly but firmly stood her ground against social and family conventions”

Alice Daniels, 1940s

On a personal level I would say my nan, Alice Louisa Daniels, was a real inspiration for me. She ran the family shop (during wartime when stocks were hard to maintain) while my grandad had a full time job elsewhere. She quietly but firmly stood her ground against social and family conventions that demanded she give up her job to take on the care of my grandad’s brother when his mother died. She knew that his challenging mental and physical health problems could be better cared for elsewhere. She was also a source of traditional wisdom – folklore, herbal remedies, proverbs, wise words – a connection with a disappearing world.”

Intelligence and expertise

Marketing Executive Susannah Emery takes her inspiration from a more contemporary figure, scholar Mary Beard, who received abuse for her opinions on immigrant workers in the UK. She says:

“I love her because she coped with the terrible social media barrage against her and, I think, came out of it acting as a of a role model for women being taken seriously for their intelligence and expertise rather than looks.”

The same spirit of standing ground on matters of social consciousness inspired Executive Assistant Sophie Osborne’s choice of singer-songwriter Patti Smith. Sophie says:

“It all began with Patti’s tribute to Kurt Cobain ‘About a boy’ and from that point forward I made it my point to be a little bit Patti. Beyond her breathtaking music and poetry Patti’s pursuit of social justice, her rebellious attitude and pure sassiness are something I hope to carry throughout my life.”

We hope you’ve enjoyed hearing about the women that have inspired some of us at Policy Press. If you feel inspired to tell us about amazing women in your life we’d love to hear from you in the comments section below!

For more than a century women have spoken out, marched and demonstrated for equality and rights on International Women’s Day. And there has been progress, though it has been uneven and slow. Whilst the gender gap globally has been nearly closed in areas such as health and education, it continues to remain wide open in economic participation and even more so in political empowerment.

In 2014/15 only 22 per cent of the members of parliament and 17 per cent of the government ministers worldwide were women. Not more than 9 per cent of the nation states had a woman as head of state or government. This is a record high, but still very far from gender balance, even from the benchmark of 30 per cent women.

Looking at steps that have been taken in the direction of equality – such as the increase in the number of women presidents and prime ministers worldwide over the past 50 years – can provide useful lessons to help us (and, perhaps more importantly, the politicians and policy makers) understand what conditions are necessary to achieve the goals they have agreed to.

“How could a woman cope with such a demanding task?”

In 1960 when Sirimavo Bandaranaike became the world’s first woman prime minister in what was then Ceylon, it caused international concern. How could a woman cope with such a demanding task?

Half a century later the woman president of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, received the Peace Prize from an impressed Nobel Committee for her contribution to “ensuring peace, promoting economic and social development and strengthening the position of women”.

Attitudes evidently have changed – a bit. But all over the world national political institutions are still dominated by men. How did women manage to rise to the top, and what happened when they got to power?

During the half century after 1960 about 40 per cent of industrial countries have had one or more women as heads of state or government, while this has been the case for only 20 per cent of developing countries. High living standards improving people’s health, education and income may contribute to broader participation in politics.

In fact, most of the women presidents and prime ministers during this period were very well educated. Many had long professional careers before they became political leaders and achieved very high positions. To be able to get to the top, more women top leaders had such positions than their male predecessors.

Industrial countries have also often been democratic. And the great majority of women presidents and prime ministers around the world obtained their positions in countries that were characterized as “democracies”.

But the type of democratic system makes a difference. For example: of the women national leaders most rose to the top in countries with both a president and a prime minister. There were two top positions and a woman obtained one of them as part of a “top leader pair”. Very few women acquired the top position where there was only an executive president or an executive prime minister.

If a democratic system is necessary to increase women’s representation in the national political leadership, it does not follow that this is sufficient.

“An active feminist movement was required to increase the participation of women and their access to power”

After World War II, Western industrial countries mostly had liberal democracies with political rights for women. But women were usually not mobilized and welcomed in established political institutions. An active feminist movement was required to increase the participation of women and their access to power.

The women presidents and prime ministers did not become top leaders primarily because they were women, but because they felt they should lead the nation. Some also acted in the same way as their male colleagues, fighting on their terms, without being particularly engaged in ‘women’s issues’.

But many women top leaders tried to compromise, looking after both men’s and women’s interests. And a certain number challenged the male domination and explicitly promoted women friendly or feminist policies. In most cases, it made a difference that a woman rose to the top instead of a man, but the difference was often limited.

Dynamic women’s movement

To empower women then, woman-friendly democratization processes have to be actively implemented. A dynamic women’s movement is needed as a driving force and men with power must take their responsibility for reform of institutions and policies.

This means, among others things, that the political culture, the political parties and the media must ensure that women can promote their interests on equal terms with men. Parliament and government must become more representative, for example by changing the electoral system and adopting measures such as quotas to increase the recruitment of women. And “good governance” must entail emphasis on participation, protection of human rights and promotion of social justice and equality.

Women of Power publishes in paperback on Monday 9th March. Copies are available from our website here & if you’re a subscriber to our newsletter you’ll receive a 35% discount on the website too (subscribe here if you’re not part of our community yet!)

The views and opinions expressed on this blog site are solely those of the original blogpost authors and other contributors. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of the Policy Press and/or any/all contributors to this site.

Writer, academic and guest blogger Lisa Mckenzie provides a personal and powerful insight into what it means to see her book Getting By published this week.

Lisa Mckenzie, author of ‘Getting by’

After a lifetime of working class experience (mine as well as those in the book) and ten years’ of research, Getting By, is being published.

I have mixed feelings about reaching this stage of my research and my life: I am nervous about its publication, but also about the route my life is taking. I appear to have become part of the establishment at the London School of Economics, and, heaven help me, in ‘that London’.

The anxieties I have over my book becoming an item that you can hold in your hands, and something people can buy, are I suppose the normal anxieties every writer has when their thoughts are allowed out of their heads and into the public domain. Will anyone read this book? I hope they do, is my first reaction, quickly followed by, I hope they don’t.

With this book there is an added anxiety about how I have represented the people who have given me their time, their stories, allowed me to share in their lives. I carry a responsibility, as all researchers do to their respondents, to ensure they are not misrepresented. The way working class people, especially those who live on council estates, are misrepresented is at the heart of this book, and at the heart of the activism I undertake.

Devaluing and dehumanising

I know first-hand the painful consequences of what happens when working class people are devalued, what it means to be ‘looked down on’, ‘laughed at’, ‘ridiculed’ and despised. It hurts, and it is damaging. This type of institutional devaluing of any human being is also dangerous.

“the process of devaluing people…has been at the root of fascism, racism, slavery, and capitalism”

Without being too dramatic (actually why not, it is dramatic), the process of devaluing people is a way of dehumanising them which has been at the root of fascism, racism, slavery, and capitalism. It allows for the justification of the process and outcome of inequality, where some people can be treated badly, and/or cruelly while others receive equally unfair societal advantage.

The essence of this book is to show that the people who live on St Ann’s council estate in Nottingham have been subject to unfair disadvantages because they are working class, because they live in social housing, because they are low paid, unemployed and precarious. The book also makes clear that this kind of disadvantage, and any systematic devaluing of groups of people is structural, purposeful and historical.

People ‘like me’

I left school before I was 16, worked in a factory making tights for nine years, and am now researcher, author, teacher at the LSE, and in ‘that London’.

In 1984 when I left school at the beginning of the Miners’ Strike, education was not for the likes of me. My school careers interview consisted of asking me which factory I wanted to work in, and had I got one lined up? I said ‘yes thank you I’m going to work with my mum’, and I did.

“I believed the rhetoric and thought that it was my fault: I hadn’t worked hard enough at school”

My own story demonstrates clearly and obviously that I was subject to the unfair disadvantages that class inequality bestows on people ‘like me’. I, like many, believed the rhetoric and thought that it was my fault: I hadn’t worked hard enough at school and I wasn’t interested in education as a child.

However (and fortunately) that changed as I somehow found myself doing a sociology degree at the University of Nottingham as a mature student. It didn’t take me long to understand that I should have always been in higher education.

A university education is a remarkable thing, and I am grateful for it, and to those who have imparted their knowledge to me, helped me and supported me. However that doesn’t stop me from being angry for my friends, my family, my community and my class, that the process of de-valuing working class people hurts them, and benefits others.

A question of representation

Consequently it lies heavy on me that I represent people who I think of ‘like me’ fairly and accurately. Does this mean that I show the people of St Ann’s in Nottingham as tireless working class heroes, chirpy in the face of inequality like the Downton Abbey servants? The deserving, humble, and not-angry-at-all working class? I’m sure those who are advantaged by our disadvantage would like that.

Or do I represent them as downtrodden victims of the endless misery that class distinction, and class inequality produces, perhaps in the way that George Orwell does in the Road to Wigan Pier?

And of course there are other ways to represent working class people and the neighbourhoods where they live as one-dimensional ghettos full of gangs, drugs, sex, and violence. This view would definitely grab the headlines give me a bit of fame, perhaps allow me to curry a bit of favour with the Daily Mail, and even get the ear of a Minister, they love that sort of thing.

None of this would be true, it wouldn’t be fair, and it would say nothing about the complexity of family life, community, and inequality in Britain today, or in actual fact, ever.

So what I have tried to do is bring to life the life, the people, and the situations I have known and lived. These are all of the above – heroes, villains, victims – and everything in between.

Stories from the ‘inside’

And lastly, since I have been in constant turmoil and anxiety of my own class position and how it relates to this book, my research, and now my life… why did I write this book at all?

I wanted and still want to tell the stories from the inside, from the position of a working class woman, with a common Nottingham accent. From the position of an academic who doesn’t know the correct grammatical use of ‘borrow’ and ‘lend’. From a granddaughter whose Granddad couldn’t read and write, and died from emphysema from working down the pit his whole life. And whose Grandma had 10 children and only left Nottinghamshire to go to Skegness for our holidays. She had never been to ‘that London’.

Getting by publishes on Wednesday 14th January and copies can be purchased at a 20% discount from the Policy Press website – here.

The views and opinions expressed on this blog site are solely those of the original blogpost authors and other contributors. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of the Policy Press and/or any/all contributors to this site.

This year’s slogan is ‘Human Rights 365′, emphasising the fact that every day is, or should be, Human Rights Day. At Policy Press we are proud to publish the annual Human Rights Watch’s World Report, which reminds us that human rights abuses continue around the world. It is imperative that we continue to monitor these inequalities and fight for rights that for most in the West think commonplace and too easily take for granted.

Slideshow images are taken from the global rights watchdog’s 24th annual review of global trends and news in human rights which features incisive country surveys and hard-hitting essays highlighting key human rights issues.

Hardly a day seems to pass that isn’t marked in some way or another. Today is International Day of Persons with Disabilities (#IDPD) and so we’ve invited academic and Policy Press author Alan Roulstone to share his thoughts on the value of such days and how the perception of disability has or hasn’t shifted since he last blogged for us before the Olympics in 2012. He writes:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us… [Dickens, Tale of Two Cities, 1859]

“so what”

When applied to disabled people and the realities of life in 21st Century Europe and beyond, we can see that many inhumane long-stay institutions have now closed, we can witness higher expectations amongst disabled people, some get paid work, be married and take part in the mainstream of life. At best there might even be a sense of “so what” about aspects of these questions: that disabled people are simply living alongside everyone else, in ordinary houses, sharing the same dreams, getting distracted by the same distractions.

The recent Olympics can even be posited to have raised the bar yet further, in increasing awareness of what disabled people can do, their physical prowess, their endurance and grit in climbing to the top of their sport. Images of famous disabled people abound: Ellie Simmons, Stephen Hawking, Simon Weston, Ade Adepitan. So why no sounds of clarions, no frisson of excitement and sense of no-turning back at the prospect of the IDPD?

“just as you think everything is okay and the wheels of social life are running smoothly you hit an inevitable snag”

Well it would be churlish to deny the origins of the day in the Disabled People’s Movement’s international struggle to be part of the mainstream, and the UN’s official support for this over time. It would be wrong to overlook the great achievements of many disabled people, whether or not they see themselves as disabled.

The best way to sum up the paradox of being disabled is that just as you think everything is okay and the wheels of social life are running smoothly you hit an inevitable snag. A lift seems permanently out-of-order, the man at the bus stop stares at you for just a little too long, you find yourself in jobs that are made precarious by public sector cuts.

These in turn could be seen as ‘just bad days’, random and unpredictable events that could affect anyone. This might be the case. However the evidence continues to suggest that as a disabled person the paid labour market remains harder to access, public transport remains a site of contestation, most recently narrated as wheelchair users vs babies-in-buggies, and that you are more likely to be the victim of violent crime.

Despite the Olympics, you find your only accessible swimming pool is earmarked for closure. Then you open your local paper and read that another learning disabled adult has been seriously assaulted or a blind man pushed onto a railway track [as happened recently in Chelmsford, Essex].

Broad brush

The International Day of Persons with Disabilities aims:
…. to promote an understanding of disability issues and mobilise support for the dignity, rights and well-being of persons with disabilities. It also seeks to increase awareness of gains to be derived from the integration of persons with disabilities in every aspect of political, social, economic and cultural life [UN Enable]

As with any very broad brush objective by a global body such as the UN, the sentiments are profoundly welcome. The fact that disabled people can be part of a culture and make their own identities and cultures is so important. Many achievements have been registered in the lives of disabled people and it would be a curmudgeon who refused to recognise these. Indeed, there is a moral obligation to acknowledge these at every possible juncture.

“Do they change society, or to be a little cynical, do they ride the wave of change?”

We do not know, however, just how much UN initiatives, Conventions and events really make a difference. Do they change society, or to be a little cynical, do they ride the wave of change? Certainly the UN’s role in the global South is much more defined and clearly observable; in the global North state systems, histories and cultures mediate in a complex way such initiatives and Conventions. The failure of many states to ratify, or more commonly to substantiate, pledges is the real issue perhaps, as is how to measure this substantiation.

Longer-run processes of global investment patterns, an ageing population, credential inflation and resource scarcity all serve to challenge disabled people’s social integration. Meanwhile some disabled people are forced to live in institutions they would rather not live in [Winterbourne View being an obvious example]. Conversely some disabled older people wish to stay in the ‘care’ home and are being decanted into uncertain futures in the name of modernisation [cuts?]. Health spending on acute care has held up relatively speaking [Kings Fund, 2013], but spending on social care has led to an unprecedented post-war crisis in social support.

I shall be marking the IDPD unobstrusively. I shall emit a cautious smile or two which may perplex the person sitting next to me on my commuter train, a smile of recognition that disabled people matter. I shall be sobered by the first bad news story about disabled people’s lives and struggles I read later that day. Trust me, I don’t go looking for them.

The views and opinions expressed on this blog site are solely those of the original blogpost authors and other contributors. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of the Policy Press and/or any/all contributors to this site.

Policy Press author and guest blogger Torild Skard reflects on what it has taken for women to be the political power in their countries in the 50 years between 1960 and 2010.

Torild Skard is a Senior Researcher in Women’s Studies at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs in Oslo, specialising in women in politics. A pioneer in the women’s movement nationally and internationally, she was formerly a MP and the first woman President of the Norwegian Upper House. She has also been Director for the Status of Women in UNESCO Paris, Regional Director in UNICEF West- and Central Africa and Director General in the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She has written numerous books and articles on women’s issues, particularly women in politics and travels widely studying and promoting the status of women.

Her book, Women of power, written from a position of ‘insider knowledge’, charts the lives and careers of women as they finally moved onto the central political stage, published at the end of July.

IN THE COURSE of 50 years 73 women have become presidents or prime ministers globally. As newcomers to political leadership, who fought opposition and prejudice to get there, many also came to power in times of crisis.

Unrest and armed conflict, transition from authoritarian to democratic rule and depression with poverty and social distress were all challenges many of the women national leaders had to deal with in and as part of coming to power.

Lidia Güeiler Tejada

Facing the military in Bolivia

In 1979 accountant Lidia Güeiler Tejada became president of Bolivia. Bolivia was one of the poorest countries in Latin-America with a record in military coups. Güeiler had had a long career struggling for human rights, fought in the underground resistance, was active in party politics and in 1956 was the first woman elected to Congress. When the military took over, she spent years in prison and exile, but did not give up. In 1978 she was re-elected and became president of the Chamber of Deputies

In 1978 the long-time dictator finally accepted that he must hold elections, and a chaotic period followed. An interim government was formed, but it was soon overthrown by the military. People protested and Güeiler became the country’s first woman president.

In spite of the turbulence and insecurity, Güeiler took on the role of interim president and pressed ahead with firm determination. But it did not last long. The military seized power again and Güeiler had to flee the country.

Sheikh Hasina

Fighting for democracy in Bangladesh
At its independence in 1971, Bangladesh was overpopulated and devastated by war. Agriculture was primitive and the land was ravaged by floods and storms. In spite of extensive development efforts, dissatisfaction was growing and Mujibur Rahman, the ‘Father of the Nation’, responded by declaring a state of emergency so that he could rule with greater authority. But this provoked negative reactions, and in 1975 he was killed by military in his home. General Zia took power and gradually moved towards a more democratic system. But then he was murdered by a group of officers. General Ershad replaced him and re-imposed a state of emergency with authoritarian rule.

Khaleda Zia

The two politicians who, more than any others, took up the struggle for democracy, were women. Sheikh Hasina became leader of the Awami League and Khaleda Zia of the Bangladesh National Party. They struggled for years organising demonstrations and strikes and both were imprisoned several times. But they persisted, even though Muslim leaders claimed that female leadership was in conflict with Islam, and close relatives of both of them were assassinated: Sheikh Hasina was the daughter of Mujibur Rahman and Khaleda Zia was General Zia’s widow. Finally in 1991 elections were held and the two women became prime ministers, one after the other.

Sylvie Kinigi

Ethnic tensions in Central Africa
Central Africa was marked by intense conflicts between Hutus and Tutsis and two women were brought in as national leaders to promote reconciliation. Until the 1990s the regimes in Burundi and Rwanda were authoritarian with violence and mass killings. Then efforts to democratise started. In Burundi in 1993, a Hutu president was elected and he appointed Sylvie Kinigi as prime minster. In addition to being a capable economist, she was Tutsi. But three months later while massacres took place in the countryside, Tutsi paratroopers stormed the palace and killed the president. Kinigi sought refuge in the French Embassy.

Suddenly Kinigi was both president and prime minister. After 11 days she left the embassy to talk with survivors and army factions. She managed to create some order and the Parliament elected a new president. But ethnic violence continued and she was the subject of criticism, threats and attacks from all sides. She resigned as prime minister and went abroad. She survived; her female colleague in Rwanda did not.

In 1990, Tutsi refugees in exile created the Rwandan Patriotic Front, RPF, and invaded Rwanda. They demanded an end to the authoritarian regime of the Hutu president Habyarimana. He established a coalition government with members from the opposition, among them Agatha Uwilingiyimana. She was a teacher and Hutu. First she became minister of education, then in 1993 prime minister. She managed to negotiate a peace agreement with the RPF, but before a new government could take over, the presidential airplane was shot down. It is not clear who fired the shot, but the incident led to widespread murders of Tutsis and moderate Hutus in Rwanda and Burundi and both Agatha Uwilingiyimana and her husband were killed.

Brutal sexism in France and Australia
Over the period 1960 – 2010 economic and political crises were most frequent in developing and Eastern industrial countries. But even in ‘stable’, ‘calm’ Western democracies women leaders experienced challenging situations.

Edith Cresson

In France in 1991 President Mitterand appointed Edith Cresson as the first woman prime minister. He wanted to be radical and modern, but the male ‘barons’ in the party were furious, refused to support her and opposed her initiatives and policies. Before she even said a word, the media labelled Cresson a ‘media bluff’ and a ‘poor puppet’. She was Mitterand’s ‘sexy slave’ and was ridiculed because of her ‘frivolous’ jewellery and high-pitched voice. Cresson fought back, but before a year had passed, she had been dismissed by the one who appointed her.

Julia Gillard

In Australia twenty years later the situation was no better. The first woman prime minister, Julia Gillard, became the object of cruel sexist attacks. The media called her a ‘bitch’ and a ‘liar’. There was hate speech against her on Facebook and cartoons were published depicting a naked Prime Minister wearing a dildo.

by Torild Skard, author of ‘Women of power’, published by Policy Press on 30 July.

A Citizen’s Income is an unconditional, nonwithdrawable income for every individual as a right of citizenship. It’s unconditional: that is, any two working age adults would receive exactly the same amount, no matter how different the amounts they earn, the assets they own, or the households in which they live. Every person over retirement age would receive the same larger amount. And every child would receive the same as any other child. A Citizen’s Income is nonwithdrawable: that is, if you earn additional income, your Citizen’s Income remains the same. And it’s for every individual: so it’s not reduced if you’re living with someone else, or the person you’re living with earns some additional income.

In all of these respects a Citizen’s Income is the opposite of our current means-tested benefits. Means-tested benefits are conditional: on looking for work, or on being ill, on how much you earn, on who you’re living with, and on how much they earn. Means-tested benefits are withdrawable: so if you earn some additional income then your benefits are reduced – and you will often receive only 15p of any extra £1 you earn, or sometimes only 5p. And means-tested benefits are not always paid to the individual, because for a couple living together only one of them receives the means-tested benefit, whether that’s Income Support, Jobseeker’s Allowance, so-called Tax Credits, or, in the future, so-called Universal Credit.

Is Citizen’s Income affordable? Details of costs can be found at http://www.citizensincome.org. For example, the FAQs on the website include a report on a feasible revenue-neutral Citizen’s Income scheme that grants a Citizen’s Income of £51.85 weekly to every child and every adult up to the age of 24, £65.45 to adults older than 24 and younger than 65, and £132.60 to everyone over 65 years old (a Citizen’s Pension).

Several recent books have suggested that a Citizen’s Income would be an important part of the answer to the growing inequality and other problems that our society faces today: but the last book to offer anything like an exploration of the subject as a whole, and of the arguments for and against a Citizen’s Income for the UK, was published over ten years ago. Money for everyone fills a significant gap. It argues for a Citizen’s Income on the basis that this is the kind of benefits system that we would invent if we were starting from scratch, and on the basis that a Citizen’s Income would solve many of the problems facing our society and our economy. It would provide a greater incentive to seek additional earned income (because it wouldn’t be withdrawn as earned income rises); it would be efficient and cheap to administer, it could attract almost no fraud, and there would be almost no errors in its payment (unlike our current benefits system); no stigma would attach to receiving it (because everybody would receive it); it would increase social cohesion (unlike our present tax and benefits structure, which divides us into benefits recipients and tax-payers); it would set us free from bureaucratic intrusion (whereas the present benefits system imposes cohabitation rules on us, meaning that civil servants need to know who is living with whom); and the radical simplicity of a Citizen’s Income would future-proof it (unlike our present benefits system, which belongs in the 1930s).

Money for everyone surveys the history of our benefits system, and of attempts at reforming it, and it suggests different ways of implementing a Citizen’s Income. It describes the Alaska Permanent Fund dividend, Iran’s new Citizen’s Income paid to households, and pilot projects in Namibia and India. It constructs a list of criteria for an ideal benefits system, and finds that a Citizen’s Income would satisfy them but that our current largely means-tested system does not. The book asks the important question: Would people still work if they received a Citizen’s Income? – and finds that they would. Further chapters describe a Citizen’s Income as an answer to poverty, inequality, and injustice; ask who should receive a Citizen’s Income; study financial feasibility; discuss political feasibility; and ask which problems a Citizen’s Income would not solve.

Changing society and changing economy need a Citizen’s Income; Money for everyone shows that a Citizen’s Income is both desirable and feasible.